


The Girl in the Mirror

by sophisticatedloserchick



Series: Trapped in the Mirror-World [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:00:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23145073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophisticatedloserchick/pseuds/sophisticatedloserchick
Summary: Iris watches her husband while trapped in the mirror world.
Relationships: Barry Allen/Iris West
Series: Trapped in the Mirror-World [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663735
Comments: 6
Kudos: 33





	The Girl in the Mirror

**Author's Note:**

> A angsty drabble I had to write after watching the latest episode. My poor westallen T___T

Iris watches Barry whenever she can.

There’s no pattern or reason as to when images of her life would appear in the silver reflection of the mirror. Sometimes it felt like hours, even days between her catching the briefest glimpse of the world she longed to return to. Then other times the images never stopped as if the mirror cruelly enjoyed torturing her with reminders of a life that was so close yet so far away.

The moments when she saw Barry were the hardest.

Her heart leapt at the sight of him. Her eyes greedily drinking in all the small details of him that made him Barry; the messy swoop of his hair when he first woke up in the morning, the crooked quirk of his lips when he smiled, the length of his shoulders in the sweater she bought him for Christmas.

Yet her heart ached knowing she could only look and nothing more. In the cold emptiness of the mirror-world it was the warmth of Barry’s touch that she missed the most, how when he wrapped her up in his arms she felt safe and protected.

The worst was when Iris saw Barry with Her.

There’s an acute kind of pain in seeing your husband with a mirror reflection of yourself.

Iris had thought the real painfiul part would be seeing her husband happy and in love with someone who wasn’t truly, completely her. That Barry would be just as happy with the reflection of her instead of all of her. Iris feared that was exactly what happened when she first saw Barry and the reflection of her continue to live in wedded bliss.

But then the cracks started to show.

More and more when Iris sees Barry and the reflection of her there’s a distance between them.

Barry tries to reach out to her and fix the distance, seeking the warm and familiar intimacy that always existed between them only for him to be rejected every time. Iris watches from her mirror prison the hurt and confusion flicker across his face when it happens. When his sweet words are met with silence, and his his lover’s touch not being returned. More heartbreaking is that Iris knows her Barry all too well, knows that he’s blaming himself for the distance and that a voice in the back of his mind says ‘its all your fault’.

Iris then becomes angered because its the reflection of her who put that merciless voice in Barry’s head.

As time goes on Barry and her reflection are rarely alone together.

Like tonight, Iris watches Barry come home from work. He used to call out her name and announce that he’s home but he stopped doing that weeks ago after he continually came home to a empty and silent loft.

He moves slowly through the dark loft only turning on a few lights. Lately Iris notices that Barry moves with none of his usual speed and he looks sick with his pale face and dark circles under his eyes. Both should be impossible because of his connection to the speedforce.

Iris looks on as Barry pauses by the side table in the living room and reaches out to pick up a framed photograph from their wedding day. The expression on his face is so open and raw it makes Iris choke back the tears.

She recognizes that expression, its longing. Barry is longing for something he doesn’t realize he’s already lost. And despite believing his wife is still by his side a loneliness now consumes him.

Iris knows that longing and loneliness. Can feel it right down to her bones. It consumes her in a way that makes it hard to breathe some days and where she would do anything to get back to him.

She’s screaming out his name now, a fruitless attempt to get his attention that never works. Her firsts pounding on the cold mirror surface. But right at the moment when Barry lifts his head to stare directly at her, and hope grows in her chest that he finally sees her, the mirror shifts and Barry disappears.

All Iris has left is her reflection staring back at her.


End file.
